Gukesh earned the right to face China's Ding Liren for the world championship showdown after winning the Candidates Tournament in Toronto this year, and is being considered a favourite for the title when taking into account the recent form of the two players.
In a video shared by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) on their official X account, eight players were asked to predict the winner of the Gukesh vs Ding showdown at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore next month.
Erigaisi, Gujrathi and Agrawal unsurprisingly picked their compatriot, who was part of the Indian contingent that had won a historic double gold in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary in September.
However, there were a few top players who voted in favour of Liren, who occupies the 21st spot in the latest FIDE rating in which Erigaisi and Gukesh are ranked third and fifth respectively.
"I have to choose one of them? I think maybe Ding… I'd still go with Ding, I don't know," said Italian-American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, currently ranked fourth in the world.
"If I need to choose one, I would prefer if Ding won," said veteran Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, who had held Erigaisi to a draw in the final round of the European Chess Cup.
If he goes on to defeat Ding in the November showdown, Gukesh, who had recently suffered a defeat after a run of 38 unbeaten games, will become only the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to be crowned world chess champion.
Anand, who became India's first Grandmaster in 1988, is a six-time world champion in two different phases - 2000 to 2002 and 2007 to 2013. Currentl world No 1 Magnus Carlsen had ended his six-year reign in 2013 and would go on to reign supreme for the next 10 years, until Ding unseated him from the throne last year and became the first Chinese player to win the title.
